The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love

Like the original ‘shoegaze’ tag in the early 90s, ‘nu-gaze’ is not a genre bands seem that happy to be burdened with. The Big Pink are London big noises who've had fingers in all sorts of trendy musical pies, from releasing records by Crystal Castles and Klaxons on their label to touring with TV On The Radio. I don’t know if The Big Pink would object to being branded shoegazers, but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind a music critic saying their new record is brilliant. It channels Spiritualised at their fuzzed-up, drugged-up best and adds a knowing, modern electro insousiance, a mixture of the unselfconsciously untrendy and the bleeding edge. Check out thumping single and standout track Too Young to Love, which drapes a cloak of feedback around a Talking Heads-style vocal, or the slowcore comedown sound of Crystal Visions. A Brief History of Love continues in the same vein, combining white noise with epic melody in a thrilling way not often heard since the Jesus and Mary Chain.